Aussie Travel Log Entry #1

Traveling with children is like taking a crash-course in learning how to adapt.  And now that my family has taken our biggest trip to date, I have also found that somewhere along the road of life I’ve learned how important it is to truly search out that silver-lining with every dark cloud.

Our adventure is a full one and the story likely to take a while, so for your safety (and my sanity) I am breaking it up into episodes

The journey begins before take-off…

We started early on our drive to LA for the late night trans-Pacific flight.  Knowing that we’d be driving for hours, we figured it would be best if we got to LA early to enjoy some time at the beach and park to let the boys get some energy out.  The drive was pretty painless with the portable DVD player entertaining the boys with the 1,001^st viewing of Ice Age.  Stopped at a park near Santa Monica airport – if you have boys there is no better combination than a park with airplanes flying overhead.   A short (and surprisingly sweaty) trip to the beach, a quick snack of unexpectedly delicious gourmet sandwiches at a small bistro just off the promenade and we made our way to the airport.

Excitement tends to lend a bit of a buffer to any hassle at the start of a trip.  We eventually found long term parking, caught the shuttle and managed to lug our bags and jumpy children into LAX.  The anti-climax comes once we get through security and realize that we still have 2 hours before the flight leaves. 

Here we get our first lesson in distraction.  Food – yes, that’s a good one…and chicken nuggets are always a winner.  So we got the boys set up with their chicken, French fries and chocolate milk at a lovely (read: tiny) table surrounded by other weary travelers.  The boys were definitely distracted, so much so, that one of them manages to spill their milk all over our table. In a spectacular feat, the milk splatters over our bags and finds its way to the leg of a woman at the next table.  Her pants were white, her accent French, her demeanor less than pleasant.  Good start!  In our defense, we offered napkins, we offered wipes, we offered Tide-to-Go. But like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, she gave us an effective, dismissive head shake and a look that said, “You can’t make up for your unruly child’s horrible faux pas, so don’t try”. 

Cool, so we have only WHAT 1 ½ hours until the plane departs?!?!  But really, we did the tag team bit – one parent takes one child, then switch, walking round the departure gates as if we’re on our own private carousel, multiple trips to the potty and, finally, a hit of Benadryl.  I’m sure the fact that Milo was screaming his way down the gangway didn’t provide other passengers with much confidence.  Thankfully, once we got settled into our seats and with only a bare minimum of tussling between the boys, the plane took off and the boys fell asleep. 

An interesting discovery: I found out that Milo is a fitful sleeper (like a sleeping dog running away from his dream-enemy) so I spent the time he slept keeping a hand on him so that he wouldn’t fling himself to the floor.  The best part about this flight (13 hours) is that its night time schedule means that it fits within our natural circadian rhythm and the boys were able to sleep for over half of the time.  Suffice to say, we survived the second half of the flight – I won’t tell you how, other than to say Qantas is great to have seat-back TV screens with Wiggles and Dora on demand.

Excitement builds again as the wheels hit the ground on Aussie soil and as we peer out the windows of the 747, we can see the sun coming up on a lovely Brisbane morning…